1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a connector.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H10-162888 discloses a connector with two housing units to be laminated together. Each housing unit includes a resilient locking lance for locking a terminal fitting. The locking lance is arranged so that the back surface of the locking lance is exposed on an outer surface of the housing unit. When the two housing units are laminated together, the locking lances exposed on the outer surfaces of the housing units are held in back-to-back contact with each other to restrain mutual resilient displacements thereby firmly retaining a locked state of the terminal fittings. By arranging the locking lances to be exposed on the outer surfaces of the housings, a wall partitioning between deflection spaces for the locking lances can be eliminated and the housing can be miniaturized (reduced in height) by that much.
In withdrawing the terminal fittings from the housings, the state of the locking lances locking the terminal fittings needs to be released after the housings are released from an assembled state to be single bodies. If the connector is of a normal size, a jig for unlocking the locking lance may be inserted into a jig insertion hole open on the front surface of the housing and the tip of the jig may be placed on the locking lance to deflect and deform the locking lance in an unlocking direction. However, if the housing is miniaturized, it becomes difficult to ensure a space to open the jig insertion holes on the front surface of the housing.
Open spaces are open on the outer surface of the housing between adjacent locking lances. Thus, the locking lance can be deflected and deformed in the unlocking direction by inserting the jig into the open space of the housing and catching the locking lance by the jig. However, if there is no partition wall between the deflection spaces for the locking lances, the deflection of the locking lance is not regulated. Thus, the locking lance may deflected excessively and broken.
The invention was completed based on the above situation and aims to provide a connector that prevents damage of a locking lance when a locking state of the locking lance is released.